How Organic
Agriculture
Helps Achieve
ZERO
HUNGER
GOAL #2
END HUNGER,
ACHIEVE FOOD
SECURITY AND
IMPROVED
NUTRITION,
AND PROMOTE
SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE
Organic agriculture supports and enhances ecologically
sound systems of food production that can achieve food
security by increasing and stabilizing yields, improving
resistance to pests and diseases, and battling poverty
through reducing debt incurred by the purchase of
expensive chemical inputs. By training farmers in low
cost agroecological farming methods, building on local
management skills and resources, we can enable farmers
to grow healthy and nutritious food and combat hunger in
their communities.
When increasing yield, we have to look at how this can
be done without further exacerbating the negative
environmental impacts of industrial agriculture. A recent
Berkeley analysis has shown “The yields of organic farms,
particularly those growing multiple crops, compare well to
those of chemically intensive agriculture.” Thus, sustainably
increasing productivity and incomes can best be done
by increasing the knowledge of how to farm organically.
Engaging with farmers particularly female farmers will also
be of great importance as it has been shown by FAO that
“If women had the same access to productive resources
as men, they could increase yields on their farms by 20–
30 percent.” Finally, paying farmers a fair price for their
produce will go a long way toward ensuring farmers can
live off the land.
Sustainable farming systems facilitate sustainable food
production. To date the effects of industrial agriculture
include air and water pollution, soil degradation, and
loss of biodiversity. Organic agriculture can help adapt to
climate change and weather extremities by preventing
nutrient and water loss through high organic matter
content and soil covers, thus making soils more resilient
to floods, droughts and land degradation processes.
Organic farming contributes to the maintenance of
ecosystems and provides services such as soil forming and
conditioning, soil stabilization, waste recycling, carbon
sequestration, nutrients cycling, predation, pollination
and habitats. A key factor to making food production
more sustainable and farmlands more resilient will be the
reduced use of chemical inputs and capacity building on
how to successfully farm without them.
GOOD HEALTH
AND WELL-BEING
GOAL #3
ENSURE
HEALTHY LIVES
AND PROMOTE
WELL-BEING
FOR ALL
AT ALL AGES
Unlike chemical-based agriculture, organic agriculture
does not use harmful chemicals such as the weed killer
Glyphosate, which the World Health Organization has
recently defined as a “probable carcinogen”. Traces of
Glyphosate have been found in food, water and the air.
In addition, the World Health Organization estimates that
there are “3 million cases of pesticide poisoning each year
and up to 220,000 deaths, primarily in developing countries.”
Pesticide use has also been linked to headaches and
nausea to chronic impacts such as cancer, reproductive
harm, diabetes and endocrine disruption. Incessant use of
chemicals in farming is depleting soils and contaminating
water. Thus by working with farmers to eliminate the use
of chemicals in growing food, we can make a significant
contribution to reducing their harmful effects on people
and the planet and contribute to wellbeing for all.
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CLEAN WATER
AND SANITATION
GOAL #6
ENSURE
AVAILABILITY
& SUSTAINABLE
MANAGEMENT
OF WATER AND
SANITATION
FOR ALL
Eliminating the use of toxic chemicals in agriculture will
hinder pesticide runoff into waterways, which can affect
the fish we eat and water we drink.
RESPONSIBLE
CONSUMPTION
AND PRODUCTION
GOAL #12
ENSURE
SUSTAINABLE
CONSUMPTION
& PRODUCTION
PATTERNS
A shift toward organic farming practices would bring
many benefits to the efficient use of natural resources such
as soil, water and air. To encourage such a shift, national
procurement policies can stipulate that the food served
in schools, hospitals etc. are from sustainable production
e.g. In Denmark, the government has announced that
60% of food served in public institutions should be organic.
Denmark has also set the target of doubling organic
farmland by 2020, which will contribute significantly to
ensuring sustainable food production and thus sustainable
food consumption.
We are producing enough to feed the world yet wasting
food that could feed millions. We are losing food to
standards dictating weight and appearance of fruit and
vegetables as well as inadequate storage and distribution
systems. Here action can be taken from various angles e.g.
in France, supermarkets are to be prohibited from throwing
away food and investments can be made in reducing
post-harvest loses at the point of food production. We also
need to raise awareness of the true cost of food production
as increased awareness of this issue could play a major
role in reducing retail and consumer waste of food.
CLIMATE
ACTION
GOAL #13
TAKE URGENT
ACTION TO
COMBAT CLIMATE
CHANGE AND
ITS IMPACTS
A recent paper1 suggests “even were we to stop burning
fossil fuels tomorrow, the greenhouse gases already
released will continue to raise global temperatures and
set free more harmful gases many years into the future.” A
key part to organic farming practices is soil management.
The degradation of soil through unsustainable farming has
released huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere.
By not using chemical fertilizers and organic farming
practices such as minimum tillage, returning crop residues
to the soil, the use of cover crops and rotations, and the
greater integration of nitrogen fixing legumes, increase
the return of carbon to the soil. Furthermore, a study2 shows
that with the “use of cover crops, compost, crop rotation
and reduced tillage, we can actually sequester more
carbon than is currently emitted, tipping the needle past
100% to reverse climate change.”
1 www.nofamass.org/sites/default/files/2015_White_Paper_web.pdf
2 http://rodaleinstitute.org/assets/WhitePaper.pdf
GOAL #15
PROTECT, RESTORE
AND PROMOTE
SUSTAINABLE USE
OF TERRESTRIAL
ECOSYSTEMS,
SUSTAINABLY
MANAGE
FORESTS, COMBAT
DESERTIFICATION,
AND HALT AND REVERSE LAND DEGRADATION AND HALT BIODIVERSITY LOSS
LIFE
ON LAND
According to the International Union for Conservation of
Nature, the current biodiversity loss can be considered “the
greatest extinction crisis since dinosaurs disappeared.” The
causes range from excessive use of fertilizers to the effects
of human-induced climate change. A study3 has shown
that organically managed lands have up to “46 and 72
percent more semi-natural habitats and host 30 percent
more species and 50 percent more individuals than nonorganic farms.”
3 www.fibl.org/en/themes/biodiversity.html#c11843
IFOAM - Organics International | Charles-de-Gaulle-Str. 5 | 53113 Bonn, Germany | +49 228 92650 10 | www.ifoam.bio | advocacy@ifoam.bio